Finite quantities

Just what it says on the tin, really. My brain is having problems related to the concept that things have finite quantities. If there is still a thing, then it's apparently something I don't have to worry about. I don't even notice I'm running low on the thing until suddenly I've run out.

As you can imagine, this happens with school supplies (paper, ink cartridges, page flags, highlighters). For most mundane occurrences it's groceries: I cannot comprehend that there is a bottom on my bag of chips until my hand reaches down and finds nothing. There is always enough bottled water until suddenly there's only one or none left.

Most disastrously it happens with my medications. Primo example: tonight I had to make an emergency run to the drugstore because I was flat out of an OTC I take once a day and would have missed a dose otherwise. You'd think my brain would have noticed before tonight that I'm running out of thing, but apparently not. This is also a problem with my local meds, where I forget to call in a refill until I am in dire need. It's worst with mail order, because often I'll realize when I only have a few days left and then the package can't get to me in time without using super-expensive overnight shipping.

Does anyone else have this problem? What kind of brainweird is this, anyway? I get the feeling that this doesn't happen to NT people.

 

sorry but now i'm reminded of tumblr's infinite chocolate meme.

can't really help, though, 'cause i don't think i've ever had this problem. in fact, sometimes i feel too aware of things being finite. like, everything ends and disappears, and it is really sad. so yeah...

 

I have never seen such meme but I am so totally down for infinite chocolate.

I can feel you on the navel-gazey part of it, because I sometimes have horrifying flashes of jamais vu like I'm seeing myself remembering a moment once I'm older (and now my jamais vu has been fulfilled this is weird). And that reminds me of mortality and mortality is scary like bejeezus. But like. My brain can wrap around the concept of life and death and things like that but cannot fucking wrap around that there are only 500 sheets of paper or six bottles of water or 12 highlighters in a package.

 

@pixels wow! how long were you off tumblr? that meme is now the quintessential example of "don't believe what you read on tumblr 'cause if you said 'gullible' was on the ceiling, they'd check." like, if someone's criticizing tumblr's tendency towards spreading false info on tumblr (not kintsugi, this place brings in more varied and more relevant examples), they're bound to bring up infinite chocolate.

hmm, i don't really think about the life and death of people (except when i'm worried about a friend not checking in for a long time). more like the life and death of things, friends, stuff on the internet, how much chocolate mousse royale i have in the fridge, having enough time to do stuff... not human mortality. not human life and death. just... other things.

 

I'm not sure how to help with the other stuff, but for meds, I sit down and fill up one of those seven-day pillboxes. If I can't reach the other side of the pillbox with the pills I have left, it's time to get more.

 

You can make a separate space for emergency stash and make a rule that you must tell your phone to remind you to get more of it (/put on your shopping list) before consuming anything from there.